The Unknown
by Awendela
Summary: Mulder and Scully travel to Wyoming after reports of multiple UFO sightings come across Mulder's desk. Little do they know that they will find so much more than they were expecting.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: So this is my first X-Files fic. I've wanted to write one for a while and I'm finally getting around to it. I hope you enjoy it!

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It started out like every other case. A long plane ride followed by a long car ride to some remote small town in the middle of nowhere. The location today was Ranchester, Wyoming. A small town with a population of barely 900 people in total. It was a cattle farming community located on the border between Wyoming and Montana.

Last week a series of reports had landed on Mulder's desk. In the last three months 10 residents had claimed to have been abducted by aliens with another 15 reporting seeing strange lights in the sky. Mulder could hardly contain his excitement when he called Scully to let her know that they had tickets for a 5A.M. flight out to Wyoming. To say Scully had been less than pleased would be an understatement.  
But regardless, both Mulder and Scully were now driving past the Ranchester city limit sign. The first stop Mulder had planned was the Sheriff's station. Sheriff Donnelly had lived in Ranchester his entire life. He had never seen anything more unusual than a couple of cows go missing or an unruly teen run away from home for a couple of days. So when the two FBI agents showed up her seriously doubted their motives.

"You two came all the way out from D.C. to investigate the claims of some drunks? That's what the government's taxing us for?" Sheriff Donnelly said in a sarcastic tone.

"Sheriff Donnelly how can you explain over 25 people making reports in the span of three months? For a town this small that's a large number of unusual cases and they are all saying thing. You would have to be blind not to see some sort of connection." Mulder remarked.

"Easy, a bunch of drunk farmers had a little too much fun and couldn't remember everything the next morning, so instead of admitting to their wives that they got incredibly drunk they come up with crazy stories. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what their wives would do if they realized how much some of these low down farmers spend of drinks a night." Donnelly replied.

"We would still like to verify these reports sir, can we please have the list of their addresses if it's not too much to ask?" Scully quickly asked before Mulder could anger the Sheriff any further.

"Sure, can't really hurt besides making people angry at you." Donnelly stated before handing over the stack of reports. Mulder and Scully thanked him quickly and left the station.

"Can you believe that man Scully? He has 25 credible reports of alien and UFO activity on his desk and he just ignores them. Blames them on drunks. He doesn't want to see the truth, he would rather go on living his life in a quiet, peaceful town then to think about the bigger picture." Mulder ranted as they made their way to the car. By now they were used to dealing with law enforcement officers that didn't believe them, and in a small town like Ranchester Scully didn't expect any less.

They pulled up to the first address. It was a single story red brick house. A blue Chevy cobalt was parked in the driveway. The car appeared to be in working condition, but was almost completely covered in rust. There were a few old children's toys scattered on the ground but they had been overgrown by the brushes and shrubbery in the yard.

"So a Mrs. Linda Roberts lives here. She was the first one to report being abducted. In the report she claims to have been out walking Fluffy, her Pomeranian, when a white flash appeared around her. She woke up three days later back in her bed. Fluffy still has not been found." Scully said, reading the report as they walked up to the house.

Mulder couldn't help the smirk that appeared on his face. "Well let's go see if Mrs. Roberts has found Fluffy yet."

Their talk with Mrs. Roberts was relatively short. She still had not remembered anything from that night. Did they really expect her too? She was 75 years old and it was over three months ago. No, she had not found Fluffy, but she did buy a new dog named Lucy. Mrs. Roberts told them that she had taken Fluffy for a long walk that night. The flash had occurred down by the Kenzington farm. There was a long strip of road that was uninhabited, it lead to the abandoned part of town. Apparently a tornado had devastated the area thirty years ago and no one ever rebuilt. Mrs. Roberts also remembered that there had been a strange humming noise right before the bright white flash. She believed that she had seen figures in long white coats peering over her as she lay strapped to a table, she had tried to scream but no noise came out. The next thing she remembered was waking up in her bed three days later. She seemed to be in perfect health now, thankfully.

Mulder asked her if she could describe the figures she saw in any greater detail, but she could not. She was having a hard time remember anything more than what she had told them or what was in the official report. When Mrs. Roberts mentioned she was getting tired, Mulder and Scully excused themselves and thanked her for her time.

The next five interviews went exactly the same way. The individuals couldn't remember much other than the figures in white lab coats, which Mulder was starting to believe wasn't an actual fact. They all woke up three days later with no real memory of the event or how they got home. However, one element of each story was the same. All six individuals had been walking, driving, or biking, on the old road near the Kenzington farm, so that is where Scully and Mulder decided to start their investigation.

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The Kenzington farm was nothing like Scully had pictured, it was almost like a small industrial complex. Six silos rose in a straight line behind a three story house and two processing buildings. In the distance an extremely large heard of cattle could be seen. There was no resemblance to the small produce farms she had visited as a child.

As Mulder pulled the car into the long driveway young man riding a horse appeared next to them. As they got out of the car, he jumped off the horse. "Hello," he said simply, "how can I help you?"

"Good afternoon," Mulder replied. "We're agents with the FBI. We are out here investigating a few claims about unusual activity in the area. All of the claims are centered around this farm, well the road out front. Do you know anything about that?"

The man laughed. "You mean those crazy UFO stories, no I really can't help you there. I've lived here my entire life and never seen a thing."

"Nothing?" Scully asked. She was starting to get the idea that Mulder had dragged them all the way out to Wyoming without really researching the claims.

"No ma'am. Name's John Kenzington, like I said, I've lived here all my life, never seen anything unusual besides a cow or two go missing now and again. However, the road out front leads to the abandoned part of town. A lot of kids usually head out there to prove how tough they are, kinda like a rite of passage. They say the old governor's house is haunted." John explained. "If you can go inside and bring something out without getting stuck inside then you become a man."

"Why is this governor's house considered haunted?" Mulder asked, his interest suddenly reappearing.

"Well about 50 years ago a family was murdered, the killer was never caught. It had a lot of people around here scared, we are an extremely small town, stuff like that doesn't happen around here. A few years after that it got even worse. Another family, from out of town, moved in and a week later they had completely vanished, vanished without a trace. When the Sheriff went out there to investigate he found it all extremely creepy. Everything had been left in the house, coffee in mugs, toast in the toaster, water running, etc. The only thing missing was the people. No one has moved in since, for obvious reasons." John explained.

"Was there any sort of official investigation?" Mulder asked, already formulating a plan.

"Of course sir, but nothing ever came of it. The family just vanished." John replied.

"You said this all occurred at the governor's house, can you tell me where that is?" Mulder asked.

John Kenzington laughed. "It's a four story, yellow monstrosity, you can't miss it."

"Thank you Mr. Kenzington, we appreciate the help. If we need anything else you'll hear from us." Mulder stated before turning around and heading to the car.

"I'm thinking it was definitely a good idea to come out here. Let's go check out this haunted house." Mulder said with a smile on his face.

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Next chapter to come soon if people are interested. So please review!


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: So here's the second chapter! I hope to update every couple of days depending on my work schedule, which is sucky because it's summer at the beach. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: Obviously I have no rights to any X-files characters.

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John Kenzington was right, the old governor's house was impossible to miss. The huge yellow house sat off the road but it was still clearly visible. It rose about all of the other abandoned buildings and old trees in the area. A rusted iron gate blocked the driveway. It looked as if it hasn't been open in about 50 years, but according to John Kenzington's story that couldn't possibly be true.

Even from the road Mulder and Scully could tell that the house was falling apart. Big spots of paint were missing from the siding, shingles fallen from the roof were collecting in piles on the ground, almost every window had been broken, and the front door was knocked off its hinges. Scully has no problem seeing why people thought it was haunted.

"So what exactly do you hope to find here Mulder?" Scully asked as they walked up the long driveway. "We should have at least looked at the old reports before coming out here. We have no idea what we are getting ourselves into."

"But that's the fun part Scully." Mulder said grinning. "There is clearly something going on here, and with the Sheriff's attitude, it's up to us to figure it out."

"Yes, but why Mulder? We came out here to investigate the alien abduction claims which have all been proven basically false. This haunted house has nothing to do with that." Scully argued. She did not want to file an official report for investigating a haunted house. Skinner would laugh at them.

Mulder sighed. "We have the hotel booked for another two days, if we don't find anything substantial by them we can leave, alright?"

"Fine." Scully replied, knowing Mulder would not budge on that decision, not when there was something paranormal to investigate.

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When they arrived at the front porch Scully was seriously doubting coming here unprepared. The front porch was completely destroyed. Broken boards and mold were everywhere. She seriously questioned if the porch would hold their weight. "You first Mulder." She said.

Mulder didn't even bother to respond before climbing his way to the front door. Surprisingly he made it without falling through the rotten boards and proceeded to push the front door open. That was a terrible mistake. He had barely touched the door when it fell off the frame and landed on the ground with a long bang that resonated throughout the house. "Well that's one way to make an entrance." Mulder remarked as he stepped further inside the house.

Scully sighed and quickly followed the path Mulder had taken over the porch. The last thing she wanted to do was fall through the rotten wooden planks. Once inside she could not believe what she was seeing. The interior of the house had not been touched since the last family disappeared. Toys littered the floor, a stock of magazines still on the coffee table, pictures still hung on the walls; it was like walking into the past. Cobwebs and dust hung everywhere. The floor and carpet were littered with bugs and animal remains of all sorts. In that moment Scully was glad they chose to come here during the day to investigate, instead of during the night.

"This place is weird Mulder." Scully remarked as she glanced at the magazines on the coffee tables, all dated to 45 years prior. "Why would they have left everything in its place?"

"I don't know." Mulder replied. "Maybe they hoped the family would return one day." He was busy walking the bottom floor of the house. It contained about 5 different rooms. He couldn't quite figure it out, but something felt off about this place.

Mulder made his way into the kitchen. It was exactly as John Kenzington described. Nothing had been moved. It was then that the smell hit him. It was awful and definitely not 50 years old. Mulder then noticed that the refrigerator appeared to be still running. In that moment he realized they had made a mistake in coming here so quickly, without researching the history of the house.

Against his better judgement he opened the refrigerator and was shocked by what he saw. Inside was shelf upon shelf of raw meat. All different cuts and animals he was sure. When he shut the door there was a loud crash upstairs. He instantly ran back to meet Scully in the living room only to find her staring up at the third floor balcony. A figure, dressed in a white bloody robe was staring down at them. Once it saw Mulder it took off running down the stairs towards them. Mulder and Scully ran to the front door and slammed it shit behind them. They didn't stop running until they reached their car.

"What the hell was that Mulder?" Scully exclaimed as soon as the car had turned back onto the main road.

"I don't know." Mulder said. He had no answer for her, but he intended to find out. The first stop was back to the Sheriff's station. This time they would get some answers.

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A/N: So I know it's a little short but I wanted to update as quickly as possible since I already had the chapter written.

Thank you to all my lovely reviewers!


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Ahhh! I love all the feedback from you guys I really appreciate it! It really makes me want to hurry up and get new chapters out for you! Keep it coming!

Disclaimer: I still obviously own nothing.

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Mulder was still laughing at the expression on Sheriff Donnelly's face when he and Scully had walked in demanding every report that have been filed about the old governor's house over the past 50 years. In total, it was over 300 reports. Those reports included everything from burglary to hauntings to missing persons. Of course the Sheriff claimed ignorance, stating all they had requested the first time were the reports about the abduction claims. Mulder had a feeling that the Sheriff was somehow involved in all of this; why else would he keep trying to block their investigation?

The clock on the wall of their cheap motel real 2:30A.M. They had been going over the reports now for several hours and nothing substantial stood out. There were four possible missing persons cases, Mulder called them possible because they were never proven to be related, they could simply be runaways. A few burglaries that were because of the teenager's rite of passage of stealing times inside of the house, and not much else other than towns people being scared of the place.

Mulder and Scully decided to focus on the 10 reports that related to mysterious apparitions or ghostly figures appearing in the house. Four described the robed figure that they had seen earlier. Three described an animalistic looking man in an expensive suit. Apparently he only appeared on the fourth floor. The last three reports described a small boy appearing in the kitchen. The child's face was supposedly covered in blood. Mulder was thankful he didn't run into that today.

While Mulder was busy looking over all of the reports about mysterious appearances, Scully was busy researching the history of the governor's house. It had been called the governor's house ever since the late 1800s, but the governor had never actually lived there. He had visited Ranchester for only two weeks, but somehow the name stuck. The first family, the Jackson's, were murdered in 1947. The family had consisted of six people. The parents, Mark and Betty, were found in their second floor bedroom. Both were shot in the face with a shotgun. It was believed that their youngest child, a girl named Victoria, was in their bedroom that night and had tried to hide from the killer. She was found with her throat slit in the adjoining bathroom. The Jackson's other daughter, and oldest child, Madison, was found in a similar way. Her throat had been slit while she lay sleeping in bed. The Jackson's twin boys, Anthony and Alexander, had experienced the most gruesome death, they were beaten to death with a baseball bat that they had used during little league.

Whoever had gone after the Jackson family had held a lot of rage and anger against the family. Scully had found that the Sheriff at the time hadn't made note off the three distinct ways in which the family members were murdered. She almost believed that they were looking for three different killers, not just one as the report suggested.

The next family's story was even stranger. In 1951 the MacDonald family moved from Sioux Falls to Ranchester. Three months after their arrival the family vanished. Just like the Jackson family before them, the MacDonald family had four children. It was the children's school that had notified the authorities when all four did not show up for class. When the police arrived at the house the found it eerily quiet. The family car was still in the driveway, the front door unlocked, the radio was still broadcasting the morning news, but no one was home. There was no sign of a struggle nor any blood left behind to indicate and injury or a struggle. It was if the family had just got up and walked away.

The Sheriff's office had placed an officer outside the house 24 hours a day for two weeks, but they never saw or heard anything from the house again. It wasn't long after the authorities gave up that the scared towns people started closing up shops and moving out of town completely or to what they considered a safe distance away. The area around the governor's house had literally become a ghost town in a matter of weeks.

When Mulder and Scully had finished going through everything it was nearly 4A.M. Scully had outright refused when Mulder suggested going back to investigate the house that night. They needed to get some rest and they still didn't know what they were up against. If he wanted to go tomorrow he could. Scully was planning on interviewing two women, they were family members of the Jackson family. She wanted to get their version of the events, not just what was written in the official reports.

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At 10A.M. the next morning Scully found herself alone going to interview Mrs. Anna Roberts, formerly Anna Jackson, younger sister to Mark Jackson. Scully had tried to get Mulder to come with her but he stated he had something else to look into.

As Scully knocked on the door of a weathered farm house an elderly women opened the door. "Can I help you?" She asked.

"Good morning ma'am, my name is Agent Scully, I'm with the FBI." Scully said, flipping open her ID. "This may seem a little strange but I'd like to ask you some question about your brother, Mark."

The old woman's eyes lit up. "Please come inside." She replied quickly. "What is it that you want to know?"

"I would like to hear your side of the events that occurred in 1947. The official reports seems to be a little unclear on certain details and I was hoping you could help clear them up." Scully stated as she took a seat on the woman's old floral sofa.

"Of course, where should I start?" Mrs. Roberts asked.

Scully smiled politely. "Let's start at the beginning. What do you think happened?"

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Mulder was not having the same luck as Scully. He had read in one of the reports that a boy by the name of Aaron Mason had taken pictures of the boy the appeared in the kitchen. When Mulder went to question him it turned out that Aaron Mason had moved to San Diego to escape the same town life. Mulder had talked to his mother to see if he had any belongings left in Ranchester. Aaron did, but it was only a box of small odds and ends, nothing special. Mulder still wanted to look at the items, but as expected the box didn't contain the pictures he was so desperately looking for. In Mulder's mind there was only one thing left to do; go back to the house, at night, and figure out just what exactly was going on.

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A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed it! Please, please, please review. I love all of them! Hopefully I can have the next chapter up by the end of the week!


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Hey guys! Here's the next chapter. Hope you enjoy it! This chapter is un-beta'd so all mistakes are mine. I wanted to get it out as quickly as I could!

Disclaimer: Obviously I still own nothing.

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Mrs. Roberts provided Scully with a lot of information that was not included in the official report. She had actually been the person to find the family after they had been murdered. Apparently the children had died first, the youngest to the oldest, all killed in order. The parents were killed last, almost as if the killer had intended to make them suffer by watching their children die. Mrs. Roberts had also been told by a friend at the police department that the bodies had been stages. The members of the Jackson family had not been killed in their beds, there had been a struggle that the killer had cleaned up.

This information completely changed what they knew about the murders. Whoever the killer or killers were had planned this long in advance. They would have had to had previous knowledge about the family's daily activities, meaning they would have a hiding place somewhere close to the house. Scully quickly thanked Mrs. Roberts for her time and went to call Mulder, they needed to get back to the house.

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Mulder had been ecstatic when Scully had called suggesting that they return to the house. While their reasons for going where completely different, Mulder was sure he could try and convince Scully that making the figures appear was more important than finding a place to spy on the family. They had agreed to meet on the outside of the iron gate. There was no sense in getting to the house alone and having something go wrong.

"Did you find anything out from Aaron Mason?" Scully asked as he approached.

'No, he moved to San Diego a few years ago. He didn't leave anything behind. What did you find out from Mrs. Roberts?" Mulder asked.

"She was actually helpful. She was the first one on the scene and had a few friends that kept her updated on the case's progress. The bodies were stages, which takes a lot of time for a killer to do. I also think we may be looking for more than one killer." Scully explained as she and Mulder walked up to the house.

"So Scully, my plan is to explore the second and third floors. That's where the two parents and the youngest daughter were found. It's also where we saw that female figure appear last time. I hope she appears again." Mulder said excitedly.

Scully knew better than to reply back. If the figure appeared great, if it didn't, also great. She needed to find how the killers had been able to spy on the family for so long. When they arrived at the house they realized that the door was still broken and laying on the floor from when they have entered last time. They both quietly stepped over the ruined door, silently deciding not to even bother with the first floor this time. They had to be extremely careful walking up the stairs; several floorboards were rotten or had huge chunks missing out of them. Scully stopped at the second floor while Mulder continued on to the third floor.

The house was set up so that someone at the front door could look up and see all three floors above them, in a very similar manner to some professional buildings. The second floor was set up in a giant "U" shape. Two bedrooms and two bathrooms were located in the second floor. The parent's bedroom took up the space of two or three other bedrooms with an attached bathroom. The bed and all other furniture that had belonged to the MacDonald family were still there. Scully hoped that the second family hadn't destroyed too much of the original room's layout otherwise she could be looking in the completely wrong location.

Scully decided to start in the closet. It was a large walk-in closet, it was the size of a small bedroom. She had to move old clothes around to actually get to the white walls. There had to be some sort of hole to where someone could stand behind and watch the family daily. She searched the entire closet and didn't find anything. This confused her a little, the closet was an area that family members would interact with daily. Next Scully looked to the ceiling and still found nothing. No holes that could signal an area where the killer could have placed a video recorder. However, it did look like several holes had been covered up in the ceiling. Scully had no idea if they were covered by the MacDonald family or if the Jackson family had done it.

It was then that she noticed a small crease in the wall behind the antique dresser. At first glance it appeared to be painted over but when she looked closer it was obvious that there was a small crack in it. She then noticed scratch marks in the hardwood floor below the dresser. It had been moved many times before.

At first Scully thought about calling Mulder for backup but decided against it. There was certaintly nothing left inside the wall. The dresser moved easily when she pushed it out of the way. The contents and family's belongings had been cleaned out. Strange that everything the family owned had been left except for this one dresser. Scully found a small latch in the wall that had been hidden by the dresser. When she pulled the latch a section of the wall popped forward. Things just kept getting weirder. Before she had a chance to open it and investigate further a sudden, loud crash sounded from the floor above.

Scully left the door open and ran up the stairs to the third floor. Mulder was no where to be seen. She quickly checked all the bedrooms, bathrooms, closets; nothing. He was gone. This could not be happening.

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Hope to update soon. Pretty please leave me a review! I love them and them make me update as soon as possible!


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